A post with a link to a website is being widely shared on social media claiming that 650 people died because of a disease that spread due to eating onions. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: 650 died in the USA because of a disease that spread due to eating onions.
Fact: A recent salmonella outbreak linked to onions was reported in the United States but there were no deaths reported because of this outbreak. According to the figures posted by the CDC on 29 October 2021, there were 808 illnesses and 157 hospitalizations, and no deaths reported. The FDA, along with CDC and state and local partners, is investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg infections linked to whole, fresh onions. Onions linked to the outbreak are being recalled for possible contamination. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Upon opening the link given in the post, an article with the headline that says 650 people have died in a hospital is found. However, if one reads the full article, nowhere it has been mentioned that so many people have died, except in the headline. In fact, the first paragraph in the article says that no one had died yet. “In the US, more than 650 people in 37 states were sickened by an outbreak of salmonella bacteria caused by onions. The US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention said that about 129 people are currently hospitalised, and no one has died so far.”
On 20 October 2021, the CDC had released a media statement about a ‘Food Safety Alert’. According to the CDC, there was a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg infections in the United States, where whole onions were identified as the source of the outbreak. The CDC had advised people not to eat certain types of onions. “CDC advises people who have unlabelled whole red, white, or yellow onions at home to throw them away and not eat them. People should not eat, and businesses should not sell or serve, whole onions that were imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed by ProSource Inc.” No deaths have been reported in relation to the outbreak; 652 people had been reported sick but only 129 had been hospitalized.
According to the latest figures posted on 29 October 2021 by the CDC, there were 808 illnesses and 157 hospitalizations. Still, there were no deaths reported.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), along with the CDC, is investigating this outbreak linked to whole, fresh onions. “FDA’s traceback investigation is ongoing but has identified ProSource Produce, LLC (also known as ProSource Inc.) of Hailey, Idaho, and Keeler Family Farms of Deming, New Mexico, as suppliers of potentially contaminated whole, fresh onions imported from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico.” Onions linked to the outbreak are being recalled for possible contamination.
To sum it up, the Salmonella outbreak in the US is linked to onions but there is no evidence that 650 people died because of the outbreak recently.
